


Absent Heroes

by orphan_account



Category: Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
Genre: Canon Het Relationship, Canon Relationship, Double Drabble, F/M, Hobbits, Minor Character(s), POV Female Character, POV Minor Character, POV Third Person, Past Tense, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-03
Updated: 2008-05-03
Packaged: 2017-10-09 06:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/84259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam's been gone a long time; too long a time for hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absent Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> 'And I never hoped at all, Sam,' she said, 'until that very day; and then suddenly I did. In the middle of the morning I began singing, and father said "Quiet lass, or the Ruffians will come," and I said "Let them come. Their time will soon be over. My Sam's coming back." And he came.'  
> \- from one version of the unpublished epilogue to Lord of the Rings, later published in History of Middle-Earth.

Sam wasn't coming back.

Rosie believed that now, as she hadn't wanted to in the beginning. She had to, now, when there were Troubles everywhere, and there was no time to be wishy-washy. If a hobbit wanted something, she would have to work for it, or resign herself to lack.

The men had been at their stores again, and though Daddy wasn't saying anything, Rosie could well see that they were looking at a very hard winter.

Sam was gone forever, and they needed her head, hand and heart at the farm; they needed her brain and her charm, every last ounce of her, just to get through the coming snows.

So she collected the serial letter she had been laboriously writing, the ribbons she'd worn when he'd danced with her last, flowers she'd pressed between her diary, and other items collected over so many years. She put them all in her grandmother's rosewood box, locked it, and dropped it in the space between the cellar and the kitchen walls.

She would not think about him anymore, for he wasn't coming back, and the clouds would never part; the sun was gone forever, and hope was buried in the walls.


End file.
